I have six albums out. Every one of them was made on a phone, in BandLab, with whatever was in my hands at the time. I am proud of all six. But none of them is a studio record, and I have always known the difference.
Album seven is the studio record. It is self-titled: Big Dad The Chairman. No features to lean on, no outside production to hide behind. A self-titled album is a man standing behind his own name with nothing in between, and that is exactly where I intend to stand.
The album has one idea, and the idea is the machine. Here is what I mean by that: the machine is an environment, a team, and a set of tools that takes a person and transforms them into their best self — into who they want to be — with the end product being a successful artist. That machine is what built me. This record is me showing the blueprints.
Fourteen songs in four movements. The Arrival: the product, the artist fully formed, so you meet the end before you see the beginning. The Roots: the raw material — Walker, Leech Lake, Bear Clan, the language I am learning word by word. The Fire: the machine at work, the transformation itself, including the day it started — December 7, 2023. And The Return: the machine handed off, because a machine that only builds one man is just a mirror. Between the movements, five spoken pieces carry the Seven Grandfather Teachings where each movement needs them. Nineteen tracks in all.
Every beat on this record comes from my own catalog. I am auditioning 474 beats one at a time, individually, the way you would interview 474 people for fourteen jobs. The first pick is already locked, and it is the right story: Dusty Vinyl, a 90s boom bap record — beat number one, the first beat in the entire catalog. The catalog opened with it. So does the album's foundation.
And I am filming it. The series is called Building the Machine: I record myself recording, one Short for every session and every track as it happens, so you watch the album get built in real time instead of hearing about it afterward. The longer cuts stay in the vault until release week. Proof over promo — you do not have to take my word for any of this. You can watch it happen.
There is no release date, and there will not be one until the record is done. A date announced before the work is finished is a promise made with somebody else's discipline. When the masters are locked, the date gets set, and not one day before.
The machine is running. Come watch it work.
Make Some Noise. Make a Difference.
Watch the build. Building the Machine Shorts land on YouTube as the sessions happen — subscribe to @bigdadthechairmanofficial, and join the Chairman's List at bigdadthechairman.com/music for the free 'Automatic' MP3 and the free Magnum Opus mixtape.
